


victories

by spookykingdomstarlight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Biggs Darklighter Lives, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-06 14:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12819273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/pseuds/spookykingdomstarlight
Summary: “You know,” Biggs said after a few moments’ silence, “I always told myself I’d do something stupid on this day.”“I thought you didn’t believe it would happen,” Luke replied, a bit teasing as he tried to smother the sadness that that thought brought to bear upon him. He didn’t like the thought that Biggs had gotten through this war without thinking they’d get anywhere.





	victories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SidleyParkHermit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SidleyParkHermit/gifts).



“You ever think we’d reach this point?” Biggs asked, eyes sparkling with the light of a thousand fireworks and the exhaust trails from dozens of Rebellion ships. Luke didn’t think he’d ever seen anything so beautiful, but he couldn’t say so, not without Biggs laughing at him for the romanticism of such a notion. He’d probably ruffle Luke’s hair and tell him all about the strange, sweet ideas he still harbored about the galaxy.

But Luke knew the truth, even if he couldn’t say as much. Even after all these years, the words stuck in his throat. Biggs was the most important person in his life, had been since stormtroopers decided Luke’s home deserved a torch instead of to be left alone, his aunt and uncle sacrificed like cattle to a slaughter. Luke still didn’t know what he would have done if they’d survived, but he wasn’t sure he’d have ended up here.

If anything like death could be deemed worth it, he supposed theirs at least had served some point, some end beyond themselves. It was more than a lot of people could say.

“Yes,” Luke answered, honest. He’d never believed otherwise. There wasn’t a scenario he could imagine that ended with the Empire winning for good. Just as there would always be moral people, there would always be a Rebellion. He stepped a little closer to Biggs, just to keep the chill of Endor’s night at bay a little longer. Biggs had ranged far from the bonfires that raged closer to the Ewoks’ settlement, sneaking off on his own—or would have, if Luke wasn’t always so attuned to Biggs’s whereabouts, his movements.

Even if he didn’t want to, he always knew where Biggs was. He simply existed in the back of Luke’s mind, a constant source of joy and frustration and strength that Luke could tap into whenever he needed it. It wasn’t likely that Biggs realized just how much Luke relied on him and Luke hoped it stayed that way.

He didn’t need Luke’s issues in addition to his own.

It was enough simply to exist here with his best friend and more at his side, turning finally and grinning the grin of the righteous, the relieved, the incandescently happy. “I’m not surprised,” Biggs answered. “You always were a little more optimistic than the rest of us.”

Luke ducked his head. “Some would call it foolishness.” He immediately thought of Han. Han, who’d called him foolish and worse on so many different occasions, it could leave his head spinning if he let it. He loved Han truly, but Han and he sometimes failed to see eye to eye on the state of the galaxy. “Stubbornness in the face of great odds, at least.”

Biggs’s smile softened; his eyes crinkled at the corners. For a lot of people, the war hardened them. Biggs seemed to have grown softer in the years since they both first joined the Rebellion, growing more thoughtful and emotionally broad. It worked for him, drew people like moths to flames. It made Luke’s stomach flip every time he thought about Biggs and it did worse when he actually looked at his best, oldest friend.

Biggs shoved his hands into his flight suit; Luke desperately wanted to take them in his own, wrapping his fingers tight around them and squeezing until the two of them were one and couldn’t be parted. It was one of those foolish, romantic notions Han would’ve teased him for, but he couldn’t give less of a damn.

“You’re a good man,” Biggs said. “Good men are stubborn and foolish. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without a bunch of stubborn, foolish people.”

Luke flushed and he was so very happy that it was too dark for Biggs to tell. Biggs already saw too much into him. He didn’t need to see this, too. “You’d know a bit about that, I think,” Luke retorted.

Biggs laughed and brushed his hand across the back of his head. He looked up again. It was only at that moment that Luke realized that this was the first time he’d seen Biggs look relaxed in years. He pretended pretty well. Most people who knew him probably didn’t guess that he wasn’t the laid-back persona he presented to the galaxy on a daily basis. But Luke knew better. He could see the strain in the way he held his shoulders and in the severe arch of his spine and knew it for what it was.

It was the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders.

Luke knew the feeling.

But he also felt a hint of pride at being the one to see through Biggs façade. He never pushed Biggs on it, because that wasn’t what it was about, but just knowing he was the one who knew the truth, it counted for a lot.

Maybe that was selfish, but Luke would allow himself this one bit of selfishness, just as he would keep this one secret for Biggs.

It probably didn’t matter anymore anyway.

And for that, Luke was pleased. Beyond pleased. Knowing Biggs could be the carefree man he used to be… that was a gift he’d never actually expected to see again despite everything. And now that he had it, he realized just how much he’d missed it. Of course, that only drove home just how much more he wanted from Biggs, but that was neither here nor there. He should be grateful for what he had.

This was more than he could have hoped for.

Following Biggs’s lead, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and enjoyed the view. They might never see its like again. It would be a shame if he remembered nothing of it.

“You know,” Biggs said after a few moments’ silence, “I always told myself I’d do something stupid on this day.”

“I thought you didn’t believe it would happen,” Luke replied, a bit teasing as he tried to smother the sadness that that thought brought to bear upon him. He didn’t like the thought that Biggs had gotten through this war without thinking they’d get anywhere.

“Oh, I knew it would happen.” Biggs laughed. “I just didn’t know I would be here to see it. But if I did…”

“…you’d do something stupid?” Luke bit back a smile. Knowing Biggs, that could mean anything from appropriating a ship for a joyride to stealing Wedge’s Whyren’s and hiding it where Wedge couldn’t find it.

Biggs bounced on the balls of his feet and plucked at the front of his shirt with his thumbs. Proud, he repeated, “I’d do something stupid.”

“And just what stupid thing is that?” Whatever it was, he hoped Biggs would ask him to help. It seemed a fine way to conclude the war. It’d been too long since they’d done anything like that with one another.

Instead of offering a grandiose reply like Luke expected, he turned toward Luke, eyes serious. They no longer caught the light of the celebrations overhead. Still, they tracked Luke’s face. From the way he regarded Luke, he seemed so much closer now than he did before.

Luke swallowed and hoped it wasn’t _him_ who was going to do a stupid thing.

But then Biggs leaned forward, almost nose to nose, and lifted his hand to brush his fingers over Luke’s neck, his chin. Luke’s pulse thundered through his body; he could only hope that Biggs couldn’t feel it against his fingertips. He already felt exposed, like Biggs could see everything and would turn away because of it. Or, worse, not care one way or the other.

Now who was the one being ridiculous? Biggs wouldn’t do either of those things, Luke knew it intellectually.

That didn’t stop him from worrying all the same. And wondering what exactly it was that Biggs was doing. Because he barely moved, brushing his thumb over the hint of stubble that threatened to form. Luke wanted to lean into that touch, but he didn’t know what it meant. He could at least figure out why—Biggs had already explained that much. But what? What was harder.

But before Luke could ask for more, Biggs drew in a deep breath. “I always told myself I’d admit how I felt about you. That’s the stupid thing I settled on.” He said it like it was nothing, like it was easy. But it couldn’t have been, could it? The words themselves suggested he’d held back before now. And the sudden twist of worry about his mouth suggested a nervousness Luke didn’t think was possible. Biggs was always confident, always certain, or he pretended to be; he’d always been good at pretending. “Now that the moment’s here I…”

Luke swallowed again.

He was now a great deal more ready to do a stupid thing.

And so he did.

Luke didn’t learn whatever it was Biggs intended to say. Instead, he pulled Biggs into a kiss, his hands winding in the loops and straps of Biggs’s flight suit. He didn’t stop to think about what he was doing, but he also couldn’t exactly say he enjoyed it. His mind was a terrified blank as he waited for Biggs to respond, to push or pull, to return the kiss or not. A long moment passed before, finally, Biggs gasped against his mouth, shuddering as his hands fell to Luke’s waist. Another moment passed before Biggs kissed him back.

Whatever it was Biggs felt about him, he had a good idea now of what it entailed.

And Luke could safely say he felt the same.

Oh, how he felt the same.

He had no idea how long it might have been for Biggs—and the answer didn’t matter.

What mattered was this. Now. Here.

This was what they’d fought for. He hadn’t expected to understand it quite so viscerally, but understand it he did. If his eyes stung a little, it was only because the air was filled with smoke and the ash of a disintegrated superweapon. Luke didn’t cry and he wouldn’t have admitted to wanting to. Yet all the same he had to brush his hands across his face the minute Biggs pulled back to stare at him, stunned. “In case it wasn’t obvious,” he said finally, affecting amusement, “I might kind of like you, kid.”

He could have taken a page out of Han’s book here. Biggs might even have been amused by it, but instead he did what he’d wanted to do in the first place; he took Biggs’s hand in his.

“I like you, too, Biggs.” And though that’s all he said, they both knew what he really meant.

 _I love you_.


End file.
